Wiggins volleyball earns top spot at state tournament

In a region filled with exceptional volleyball talent, Wiggins stands out.

Time and again through this fall season, the Tigers have proven they belong atop the 2Aclassification, and continued to assert that fact in its Class 2A Region 1 tournament over theweekend.

Neither Grand Valley nor Denver Christian gave them much trouble. When the Tigers emergedas the predicted regional champion, they secured a place at the No. 1 seed for the statetournament, which will begin at the Denver Coliseum on Thursday and run through Saturdaynight.

Wiggins has an excellent shot at being the last team standing in 2A.

At the regional competition that they hosted, the Tigers took care of No. 36 Grand Valley inthree relatively easy sets, even as the Cardinals started to fight back in the third before falling25-11, 25-9 and 25-17. No. 24 Denver Christian proved much simpler to take down, as Wigginsquieted the Thunder with scores of 25-14, 25-12 and 25-9.

Those victories earned them a bit of a break to start out the state tournament. They’ll sit duringthe first round, instead letting No. 8 Ignacio and No. 9 Meeker go to battle, before facing off withthe winner of the two.

Wiggins’ first match will begin at approximately 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Ignacio enters the final boss of the postseason with a 19-6 record, but didn’t play the toughest ofschedules. Through the regular season, the Bobcats sparred with only three state qualifiersfrom varying classifications. Meeker, likewise, only met up with four state qualifiers during its falltenure and accumulated a 16-9 record in the process.

Wiggins, currently, houses a 21-4 record with losses to 3A’s No. 1 Platte Valley, 1A’s No. 1Merino, Sterling and Alamosa, and hopes those little bumps in the road will lead it to its second-ever state championship and first since 2020.